PROFESSOR LU YONGXIANG

Born 1942 in Ningbo, Province, , Professor Lu graduated from in 1964, and, after working as a researcher at Zhejiang, obtained his Doctorate of Engineering at the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Hochschule Aachen (the Aachen University of Technology), Germany in 1981.

Over the past 35 years, Professor Lu has made most important contributions in the area of mechanical and control engineering, especially in the fields of fluid power transmission and control, and to higher engineering education. He has owned eighteen patents, published over 280 technical papers, six scientific books, and has been invited to deliver dozens of keynote speeches or presentations.

In the 1980s, Professor Lu undertook remarkable research into electro-hydraulic proportional components and systems, and invented a series of fluid power control- cartridge components and many practical applications. His research work was included into many technical handbooks and textbooks for postgraduate students in China, Germany, Japan and Sweden.

After a distinguished career as an academic at Zhejiang University, one of the top- ranked universities in China, he became its President in 1988-95. Professor Lu became a Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991, rising to become its President in 1997. In structural terms, the Academy is akin to a combination of the Australian Academy of Science and the CSIRO, with five academic divisions – Mathematics and Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth Sciences, and Technological Sciences. It has 108 research institutes spread across China, and more than twenty supporting units, including the University of Science and Technology of China, one of the most prestigious universities in the country.

In addition to his work with the Academy, Professor Lu is a member of the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong, and a member of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the equivalent body to the Australian Research Council.

At a national level, earlier this year Professor Lu was elected to the Standing Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress. Professor Lu is one of the Vice- Chairmen of the Standing Committee, and as such is seen as one of the national leaders of the People’s Republic of China. He has been a member of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee for the past ten years.

Among his many honours are the German awards of the Alexander von Humboldt Medal (1998); the Knight Commander's Cross (Badge and Star) (2000); and the Werner Heisenberg Medal (2001). He has received sixteen advanced Ministerial or Provincial Awards in China, and has twice been awarded the National Innovation Prize of China.